Quote Originally Posted by Sheiky
Why is the sky normally blue when you look upwards? While if you see shots from a space shuttle or something, it's all black around the earth

Simple answer for you Jan;


<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"]"The blue color of the sky is due to Rayleigh scattering. As light moves through the atmosphere, most of the longer wavelengths pass straight through. Little of the red, orange and yellow light is affected by the air. <o></o>


<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"]However, much of the shorter wavelength light is absorbed by the gas molecules. The absorbed blue light is then radiated in different directions. It gets scattered all around the sky. Whichever direction you look, some of this scattered blue light reaches you. Since you see the blue light from everywhere overhead, the sky looks blue. <o></o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"]<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"]Out in space, the sky looks dark and black, instead of blue because there is no atmosphere. There is no scattered light to reach your eyes."